When you are trapped in a nightmare, you might as well enjoy a swing and a kiddie-slide

As we mentioned in our Part 1, these hilarious and often ugly sculptural atrocities for kids are seen generally in Eastern Europe and Asia, with only a few of them located in America. It seems that these monuments to bad taste are the results of either builders being lazy (perhaps on drugs?), or artists sincerely believing in freedom of artistic expression but lacking skills to convincingly pull it off. The weird thing is, we really like to see such crazy playgrounds sprout everywhere - yes, bring them on! - because then, your typical urban landscape would change overnight from "soul-deadening" to "mind-boggling".

1. Aaah! I hope this thing is not going to roll after me (like a wild unshaven Katamari)

Open the gates! Fun awaits "beyond thrice nine lands, in the thirtieth kingdom" (Russian idiom, written in the image below) -

Many Soviet pioneer camps in the 1930s through the 1950s featured standard-issue pioneer statues, which since then fell in awesome disrepair (it's pretty common to find headless, limbless statues of young athletes, spread all over the lush forest). These statues often were erected just outside children playgrounds... see the one below, telling a tragic tale of "love triangle gone wrong":

36.

This is a winner (Peter Straub, author of "Shadowland", take note!) - from the Soviet pioneer camp Petrushkovo:

Also not a playground, but so cool a structure that I just had to include it (imagine yourself relaxing on this bench after playing around - but beware, time starts to flow differently once you sit down...) -

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When I was growing up in the 70's, our nearby park near Los Angeles installed the "Giganta" robot slide. Very popular; it wasn't just fun to climb inside of...many an intrepid explorer climbed up the outside as well and would slide down the tops of the arms (very safe!)

It is not so much a playground element, but rather a statue to a cartoon character. In the cartoon, the wolf was led covertly to a house to eat and drink, as a return gesture for the wolves previous actiones which led to the dog's being accepted back to the household after it had been kicked out for gross negligence.

having eaten and drunk a lot, whiule hidden under the table at a marriage party, the wolf said "And now I shall sing", and thus revealed its presence, to the dismay of the dog and those in the room.

there was one of those big robot things in my local playground. wonderful structure, but they boarded up the head bit when i was young to keep kids from getting stuck/doing drugs up there and eventually tore the whole thing down. now the park is "safe," and i have to say, much less awesome.

I like it! It remind me on my childhood. Dr. Aibolit, the tale of the turnip, and Nu, pogodi! (the wolf and the rabbit, the East-European Tom and Jerry) were popular in Hungary too.There is some weirdness that in found in the internet:a collection: http://itscoolweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/most-weird-russian-kids-playgrounds.htmlPlaygrounds from Hungary:http://www.szoborlap.hu/2099_bohoc_kut_budapest_halasz_arisztid_1983.html?f=photo&id=8316http://www.retronom.hu/node/8304http://www.retronom.hu/node/14577http://retronom.hu/files/RotyiLice/M%C3%A1solat%202008%20M%C3%A1j%2002_05970_0.JPGhttp://retronom.hu/index.php?q=node/15863http://hemhet.deviantart.com/gallery/10745624?offset=24#/d1n0g9zhttp://hemhet.deviantart.com/art/Space-program-99130423?q=gallery%3Ahemhet%2F10745624&qo=20http://hemhet.deviantart.com/art/Playground-99120060?q=gallery%3Ahemhet%2F10745624&qo=23http://hemhet.deviantart.com/art/Train-145918546?q=gallery%3Ahemhet%2F10745624&qo=5http://hemhet.deviantart.com/art/Monster-137134165?q=gallery%3Ahemhet%2F10745624&qo=7http://hemhet.deviantart.com/art/The-big-snail-and-Me-108532135?q=gallery%3Ahemhet%2F10745624&qo=18http://kepfeltoltes.hu/101223/S3700365_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpghttp://kepfeltoltes.hu/101223/j_tsz_t_r_016_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpghttp://kepfeltoltes.hu/101223/j_tsz_t_r_012_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpghttp://kepfeltoltes.hu/101223/j_tsz_t_r_009_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpghttp://kepfeltoltes.hu/101223/S3700356_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg